Warning Against Adultery
1 1My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
2incline your ear to my understanding,
2
that you may keep
3discretion, and your lips may
4guard knowledge.
3
For the lips of
5a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is
6smoother than oil,
4
but in the end she is
7bitter as
8wormwood,
9sharp as
10a two-edged sword.
5
Her feet
11go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;
6
she
12does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7
And
13now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8
Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
9
lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless,
10
lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your
14labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11
and at the end of your life you
15groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,
12
and you say,
16"How I hated discipline, and my heart
17despised reproof!
13
I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
14
18I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation."
15
Drink
19water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16
Should your
20springs be scattered abroad, streams of water
21in the streets?
17
22Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
18
Let your
23fountain be blessed, and
24rejoice in
25the wife of your youth,
19
a lovely
26deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts
27fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
20
Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with
28a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of
29an adulteress?
21
For
30a man's ways are
31before the eyes of the LORD, and he
32ponders all his paths.
22
The
33iniquities of the wicked
34ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
23
35He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is
36led astray.